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Lenovo G405s [English Review]

Few days ago, I just got this G405s laptop from my friend (literally). Powered by AMD A8 Quad Core 2.1 Ghz, and dual graphic card by ATI (now AMD) too.

Lenovo G405s

This laptop is meant to replace my good old Acer 4520, where this 4520 might be a quite forbidden unification, since it powered by AMD Turion 64×2, but also using Nvidia GeForce 7000M graphic card.

So, what’s new?

Well, this new baby is better of course. But also got some flaw, an annoying flaw.

Unlike other website, I will not bother listing the spec, other paper stuff, or how amazing this laptop. Go googling yourself to find those information.

Lenovo G405s

Also, this review is quite bias because this is my personal opinion and I comparing this G405s with my old Aspire 4520. To save your time, I will sum the pros and cons regading the comparation and other aspect.

Pros
1. More powerful than my 4520.

2. thiner.

3. Driver CD is for Win 8, but most of the drivers are compatible with Win 7.

4. CRU design from lenovo that ease you to replace or upgrade some of the hardware by yourself (which is neat).

5. Dual Graphic card (is this mater?)

6. Capslock LED indicator is on Capslock button.

7. AMD A8 Quad Core Processor at the price of I3 processor laptop.

8. Gaming laptop, entry level of course. At least, some of power hungry games are playable. Upgrade your RAM if necessary.

9. Microphone is below left CTRL key, no need to zooming your head to your laptop lid when talking.

Cons
1. Over heating problem when playing game (NOTE: I haven’t tried this, but most users are complaining the same thing)

2. Hardware Drivers CD is for Win 8 (Suffer the same sin with 4520. I’m using XP, but my 4520 Drivers CD was for the unholy Vista………..) But the Driver CD is Win 7 compatible, still a cons thought.

5. LED indicator are freaking small, and the color change are barely noticeable until the critical state.

6. No WIFI & Bluetooth keys. You need to use the menu to dealing with WIFI and Bluetooth.

7. No GUI or display information during Hotkey press. How is the percentage volume of my speaker? I don’t know. Need to check the speaker menu on Taskbar, oh wait…. damn…!

8. Difficult to get the same screen color profile like my 4520. But… my 4520 is using Nvidia VGA, while G405s is ATI VGA.

9. Vertical height of the LCD is smaller than my 4520.

10. Single 3.5mm jack. I guess Lenovo is adapting the real vagina, where dick, sperm, baby, and urine are come and go through the same area, only with different parts……

You may stop reading here and go waste your time at somewhere else.
But if you want to know my detail opinion, keep reading.
Let’s start with some comparison between the old bastard and this new hot.
Literally, real hot btw.

Screen dimension:
My 4520 vertical screen is a lot more higher than G405s. My 4520 height measurement is around 19 cm, while G405s is around 17.5 cm.
Although the G405s horizontal measurement is 31 cm (5mm wider than 4520), I prefer my 4520 screen size.

Keyboard:
4520 got bigger keys but kinda easy to catch dust and dirt because the key design is like a flat boxie mushroom. While G450s got what they called as Accutype keyboard.

Capslock LED on G405s

Which one is better? I think different person will have different taste. But 4520 got more key, it mean less key combination to use. At the same time, 4520 also mapping more hotkey for optionals, which are great.

Short Cut/Quick Access Key:
I must say, 4520 is the best.
WIFI and Bluetooth function got their own key. Which is neat, because I only need to press those keys if I want to activate my WIFI or Bluetooth device.

No volume button, for G405s. You need to rely on either the speaker menu in your screen or the hotkey button.

In G405s, activating WIFI or Bluetooth could become quite pain in the ass. I really don’t know if my WIFI or Bluetooth is activated or not without looking in the menu.

Also, regarding hotkey, whenever I press something, there are no GUI at all. Speaker volume does not showing the volume bars, when WIFI or Bluetooth device is switched on and off, no message or GUI that telling me the status.

May be if I use Windows 8, some of this problem might gone. But that might happen in the next 10 years.

OS Preference:
For this one, both 4520 and G405s fall in the same guilt.

When I bought 4520, this laptop is specified for the unholy Windows Vista.XP users are screwed up because some of the hardware drivers are not available. The vendor only giving Vista’s driver, while XP users need to find the needle in the hay stack, AKA, Internet. And some people actually did it and kind enough to tell us (english users) if the drivers are located in Chinese language website.

G405s also suffer the same problem.
This laptop is specified for Windows 8. But at least, some of the important drivers are still compatible with Windows 7. YES, you can install the Drivers inside the CD under Windows 7 (but I don’t know about XP).

Now I only need to figure it out one and only unknown device in the Device Manager. Probably the webcam…

The spec is saying about HD webcam, so was I expecting 720p res. But using third party program, only got a shitty 640×480 resolution. Some Windows 8 users also got problem regarding the webcam driver.

Temperature:
Many user are complaining about overheating. I still not testing this G405s with power hungry games, so I will say nothing for this part.

I tried to use UDK (Unreal Development Kit) in this G405s, and indeed increasing the temperature. Even the air blow from the exhaust fan is quite hot, to the level where your hand is feeling like touching hot motorcycle exhaust pipe.

Some user in my local forum said if updating the BIOS might solve this problem. So I did that, but the BIOS already in the latest version. Funny thing is, after the BIOS update program is showing that information, the temperature is dropping (Note that, I did not update the bios because already in the latest version).

LED indicator:
I really really hate this. The LED indicator is freaking small!
Not only that, the color also barely noticeable!
I don’t know if my battery is fully charged or not without checking the task bar…

Tiny-tiny LED indicator

Back to WIFI and Bluetooth… no LED indicator too.
This might not an issue for most of you, but when you need to save battery, and you are kind of forgotful person, your laptop battery will drained faster for something that you might not use it.

The only thing I liked is, the Capslock LED is on the Capslock button! YAY…!

Ports:
HDMI port is available, so if you got big size TV, you might want to plug it when you want to watch a movie. The good old VGA also still there, for Projectors.

Charging port using proprietary port design.

Charging Port

USB port is a dissapointment, at least in my case. Although two ports already using USB 3.0, but you only got 3 USB ports. While 4520 got 4 ports.
So, 1st port for my External HDD, 2nd port for my mouse, 3rd port for my modem… Damn it! I need another one for my flash drive!
But again, this issue is only in my case, you might not need 4 USB ports at all.

Exhaust ventilation, VGA, LAN, HDMI, USB

3.5mm Port
GOD DAMN IT! Only one female jack?!
How I’m suppose to use my own microphone?! USB Microphone device?!
Oh wait, I’m not using it.
But if you want to use microphone, well… you have been warned

Single 3.5mm Audio Jack with disclosed Card Reader

Card Reader.
Is this just me, or G405s got no dummy card for protection?

Optical Disc Drive:
The button is hard to find.
Most users are relying on their finger to locate the button, but what if the button is on almost the same surface level with the bezel?
You need to get use to it.

Optical Disc Drive

Customer Replacement Unit:Most recent laptop can be opened by curious and creative users. But the fact that Lenovo is providing this CRU instruction, it mean you will not void the warranty if you replacing your RAM, ODD, HDD, and WIFI card.

But of course, different country might got different policy.

So, to cut the time. Lenovo decided to let the customer replacing the hardware by them self. Since most laptops now are easier to upgrade, I guess Lenovo got no reason to hold our unit in their hand while we are waiting impatiently for the good news

So, is it worth?

For me, yes. Despite all of the cons but up until now, I found no problem. But if you are solely aiming for gaming, go get a PC or… you could jack up your budget by 3 times to get gaming laptop.

This laptop still can play power hungry games, but not all games. I should remind you, for gaming purpose, don’t expect too much for something that cost you +- 450 USD only.

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